Eurozone: Reality Check

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9055782/Debt-crisis-live.html
06.47 In The Independent today, several financial experts offer their views on the future of the euro, with worrying results:

Danny Blanchflower, Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College: “The fundamental problem that has not been addressed is that there is no growth plan for Greece."

Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics, New York University: “The eurozone is a slow-motion train wreck. Not only Greece, other countries as well are insolvent. There’s a 50pc probability that over the next three to five years the eurozone will break up."

George Soros, currency trader: "We remain in the acute phase of the crisis; the prospect of a meltdown of the global financial system has not been removed. The trouble is that the cuts in government expenditures that Germany wants to impose on other countries will push Europe into a deflationary debt trap."

Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer 2007-2010: "I don’t think anyone can realistically say that the eurozone will survive with its present membership and the longer the inaction goes on the greater the chance that one or more countries will be forced out."

Jim O’Neil, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management: "The reality is that too many countries joined the euro in the first place and ultimately without dramatic change they can’t probably survive."

Ed Balls, Shadow Chancellor: "Far from being over, I fear the eurozone crisis is this year entering a more chronic, drawn out but equally dangerous phase."

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